Art in General announced today that it has named Laurel Ptak, currently the director and curator of the artist-founded space Triangle, in New York City, as the nonprofit’s new executive director. She will take up the post on February 13.

“Art in General offers an essential platform for highlighting the perspectives, ideas, and practices of artists of diverse background and vision, and I have long been a follower and admirer,” Ptak said. “Artists, now more than ever, have an important role to play in our ongoing public discourse, helping to pave the way for common ground and mutual understanding.”

Ptak will oversee artist engagement and curatorial direction for Art in General’s new commissions and international programs, as well as the organization’s operations and fundraising initiatives. She will also develop the upcoming What Now? Symposium––which will explore artistic and curatorial issues through panel discussions and artist interventions––and work to enhance the scope of the organization’s creative collaborations with artists and partner institutions.

“Laurel has a keen eye for art and artists and is deeply committed to bringing to the fore groundbreaking new work and creative practices,” Roya Khadjavi Heidari, copresident of Art in General’s board of directors, said. “Her curatorial experience and approach combined with an incredible institutional acumen make her the ideal choice to take Art in General into its next chapter.”

Previously, Ptak worked as curator at Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, a curatorial fellow at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and in various departments at MoMA PS 1 and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2014, Ptak cofounded the award-winning Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, which confronts gender disparity online and its effect on public forms of knowledge. She currently teaches in the graduate programs at the School of Visual Arts and the School of Art, Media, and Technology at the New School in New York City. She earned her master’s degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and her bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College.